This invention relates generally to female condoms and applicator, and more specifically, a user friendly female condom and applicator that make female condoms more comfortable and easier to use.
Condoms provide many benefits, such as preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Getting STDs is a risk that people face when they engage in intimate relationships. Some STDs, such as HIV, could be deadly. HIV is a virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). It is one of the world's most serious health issues. Since its first report in 1981, today an estimated 35 million people in the world currently live with HIV and tens of millions have died of AIDS. Among the infected HIV patients, 52% are women. Young women are twice likely to become infected with HIV than their male counterparts. Other STDs include genital herpes, viral hepatitis, bacterial vaginitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, syphilis, and etc. Some STDs are deadly, others causes serious health issues and discomforts. Therefore, it is highly advisable to take all necessary precaution to prevent STDs. Wearing condoms is one of the most effective and low cost approaches.
In addition, condoms are useful to prevent unplanned pregnancies. Couples may want to have an intimate relationship while avoid having children due to various reasons. Male condoms or female condoms are one of the effective ways to enable such outcome.
Whether one's ultimate goal is AIDS prevention, avoiding other sexually transmitted deceases, or reducing probability of pregnancy, condom is an effective tool because it is low cost and easy to use without any need of special training. We are focusing on improving female condom due to its huge untapped market with great potential of wide adoption. Women traditionally have higher stakes after pregnancy and thus generally have keener interests in birth controls. By targeting the more receptive stakeholders within female population, our effort can generate more significant impact on increasing condom adoption.
However, female condom has not gained expected traction, partly due to the difficulty of putting it on, especially during the first few uses. Female condoms comprises of two rings at each end of a cylindrical flexible tube having one end open. One ring is intended to stay inside the woman's vagina and another to stay outside during intercourse. Both inside and outside rings have to be large enough in diameter such that the inside rings does not come off easily during sexual intercourse, while the outside ring keeps the condom from being pushed inside the vagina. For such type of female condoms, one has to first squeeze the inside ring into an oval shape and then push fingers deep inside the condom tube in order to fully secure the condom into the vagina area. Many women don't feel comfortable inserting their fingers into their own vagina, either due to culture reasons or physical inconvenience/discomfort. In addition, other problems with female condoms include 1) the female condoms are made from opaque material which stands out from the skin color which might make female or her partner uncomfortable; 2) the out ring of the female condom is too thick, too hard and is an obvious prominent object in the genitalia area which also make the female or her partner uncomfortable; 3) the exposed part of the female condom is not attached to the skin which occasionally could cause the penis inserting into the outside wall of the female condom and causing failure in sexual decease or pregnancy prevention. Therefore, it is desirable to come up with a mechanism which enables placement of female condom easily and comfortably, preferably in a manner that is not frowned upon culturally.